“These results support the association between CagA-positive H pylori infection and coronary atherosclerotic burden. Further studies are needed to better elucidate the mechanism by which CagA strains of Helicobacter pylori may promote atherosclerosis.” 3

In a 2008 Chinese study, subjects were examined for aorta thickening (the main artery leaving the heart).

They were also tested for H pylori and the CagA strain.

Patients who had CagA H pylori infections had a 63% incidence of aortic atheroma (plaque).

Patients who had H pylori infections but not CagA had a 46.7% incidence of aortic atheroma.

Patients without H pylori infections had a 29% incidence of aortic atheroma.

The researchers concluded that once other risk factors such as smoking had been taken into account, CagA H pylori infection was independently associated with aortic atherosclerosis (plaque).

Their conclusion was:

“This study suggests a gradient of atherosclerosis between uninfected individuals and patients with CagA-positive H pylori infection and should prompt research into the role of CagA-positive H pylori infections in the inflammatory atherosclerotic process.” 4

From these studies, the trend seems to be that CagA H pylori strains have an ability to contribute to heart disease.

Let’s not “cherry pick” the data

Being honest, data from four studies are not really robust enough to draw convincing conclusions.

For all you know, there could be, say 100 studies and 96 of them may show no association between H pylori and cardiovascular disease.

If I chose to show you the four studies showing an association, whilst ignoring the other 96, you would be misled.

This concept is called “cherry- picking” in the medical and scientific world and it happens a lot.

How to avoid cherry picking

To avoid the cherry-picking issue, let’s look at papers where scientists collated data from multiple studies and examined them for trends between H pylori and cardiovascular disease.

These studies are called “meta-analyses”.

Here, researchers take data from lots of studies, pool the data and run complex statistical analyses to find trends and associations.

Meta analyses usually provide stronger and more robust evidence than individual studies.

In 2008, Zhang and colleagues examined 26 different case-controlled studies.

The data showed that CagA H pylori strains appear to increase the risk of strokes and heart disease.

The main conclusions were:

“Our results support the hypothesis that CagA strain infection is significantly associated with susceptibility to strokes and coronary heart disease.” 5

In other words, data from 26 separate studies confirmed an association between CagA H pylori and cardiovascular disease.

A further meta-analysis examined data from 17 separate studies and drew similar conclusions.

In 10 of the studies, data revealed an association between CagA H pylori and heart disease.

There was no association between heart disease and non-CagA H pylori infection.

In 3 more of the studies, the association between CagA H pylori infection and heart disease was weaker, but still present.

In 4 studies, CagA H pylori was significantly associated with a narrowing of blood vessels / lack of blood supply in and to the brain (with the potential to cause strokes).

Again there was no association for non-CagA negative strains .

The researchers stated:

“We found a small but significant association between vascular diseases and virulent CagA positive strains of H pylori. The lack of association with CagA negative strains further supports the hypothesis of an independent relationship between virulent strains of H pylori and vascular diseases.” 6

By the way, the information I’m presenting here is available to the general public at the PubMed website.

Isn’t it interesting that despite being publicly available, the info is not reported by the mainstream media?

Nor do we hear many doctors talking about it.

I find this interesting because heart disease kills more people than any other condition.

Disclaimers

Medical disclaimer: Any health information provided on this website should first be vetted by your own physician. Do not attempt to change your diet or any other activity related to your health based on information from this site unless you have first cleared it with your own medical doctor.

Results disclaimer: Any results, testimonials and comments published on this site are in no way a suggestion or guarantee of results. Your level of success in getting results similar to any success story on this site depends on several factors: your biochemical individuality, diet, background, motivation, commitment, and actions. Clearly, results vary from person to person.

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Medical disclaimer: Any health information provided on this website should first be vetted by your own physician. Do not attempt to change your diet or any other activity related to your health based on information from this site unless you have first cleared it with your own medical doctor.

Results disclaimer: Any results, testimonials and comments published on this site are in no way a suggestion or guarantee of results. Your level of success in getting results similar to any success story on this site depends on several factors: your biochemical individuality, diet, background, motivation, commitment, and actions. Clearly, results vary from person to person.